Index Archive

11 October 2014

Using Ajinomoto, Monosodium glutamate MSG is it good safe for Health
Now a day’s many people think that eating food which contains Monosodium glutamate aka MSG is bad for heath

Many believe that MSG should be avoided at all costs.

So let us understand and know is it really bad to eat or use MSG while making foods

What is MSG or Monosodium Glutamate?

Monosodium glutamate (MSG, also known as sodium glutamate) is the sodium salt of glutamic acid, one of the most abundant naturally-occurring non-essential amino acids

MSG is one of several forms of glutamic acid found in foods, in large part because glutamic acid (an amino acid) is pervasive in nature.

Glutamic acid, being a constituent of protein, is present in every food that contains protein, but it can only be tasted when it is present in an unbound form. Significant amounts of free glutamic acid are present in a wide variety of foods

Ninety-five percent of the dietary glutamate is metabolized by intestinal cells in a first pass.

Glutamic acid and its salts may be present in a variety of other additives, including hydrolyzed vegetable protein, autolyzed yeast, hydrolyzed yeast, yeast extract, soy extracts and protein isolate, which must be specifically labeled.

Since 1998, MSG cannot be included in the term "spices and flavorings". The ribonucleotide food additives disodium inosinate and disodium guanylate are usually used with monosodium glutamate-containing ingredients.

However, the term "natural flavor" is used by the food industry for glutamic acid (chemically similar to MSG, lacking only the sodium ion).

The FDA does not require disclosure of components and amounts of "natural flavor."

It is used in the food industry as a flavor enhancer with an umami taste that intensifies the meaty, savory flavor of food, as naturally occurring glutamate does in foods such as stews and meat soups

Food manufacturers sell and use MSG as a flavor enhancer because it balances, blends and rounds the perception of other tastes.

It is particularly popular in Japanese and Chinese cuisine, which make extensive use of such dishes.
It was first prepared by Japanese biochemist Kikunae Ikeda, who was seeking to isolate and duplicate the savory taste of Kombu, an edible seaweed used as a base for many Japanese soups.

Glutamic acid is a naturally occurring amino acid that forms with salt to make monosodium glutamate.
It's found in Parmesan cheese, ketchup, fermented soy sauce, anchovies and everything else that comes from the sea.

People taste umami through receptors for glutamate, commonly found in its salt form as the food additive monosodium glutamate (MSG).
For that reason, scientists consider umami to be distinct from saltiness.

In 1985, the term umami was recognized as the scientific term to describe the taste of glutamates and nucleotides at the first Umami International Symposium in Hawaii.

History of Ajinomoto MSG or Monosodium glutamate

Glutamate has a long history in cooking.
Fermented fish sauces (garum), which are rich in glutamate, were used widely in ancient Rome
Fermented barley sauces (murri) rich in glutamate were used in medieval Byzantine and Arab cuisine
And fermented fish sauces and soy sauces have histories going back to the 3rd century in China.

In the late 1800s, Chef Auguste Escoffier, who opened restaurants in Paris and London, created meals that combined umami with salty, sour, sweet and bitter tastes.
He did not know the chemical source of this unique quality,

Glutamic acid and other amino acids were only scientifically identified early in the twentieth century.
The substance was discovered and identified in the year 1866, by the German chemist Karl Heinrich Ritthausen who treated wheat gluten (for which it was named) with sulfuric acid.

Kikunae Ikeda of Tokyo Imperial University isolated glutamic acid as a taste substance in 1908 from the seaweed Laminaria japonica (Kombu) by aqueous extraction and crystallization, calling its taste mami.
Ikeda noticed that dashi, the Japanese broth of katsuobushi and Kombu, had a unique taste not yet scientifically described (not sweet, salty, sour or bitter).
To verify that ionized glutamate was responsible for umami, he studied the taste properties of glutamate salts: calcium, potassium, ammonium and magnesium glutamate.
All these salts elicited umami and a metallic taste due to the other minerals.
Of them, sodium glutamate was the most soluble and palatable and the easiest to crystallize.
Ikeda called his product "monosodium glutamate", and submitted a patent to produce MSG;
The Suzuki brothers began commercial production of MSG in 1909 as
Aji-no-moto ("essence of taste").

How the Monosodium glutamate MSG Ajinomoto is produced?Production Methods of Monosodium glutamate MSG Ajinomoto production

MSG has been produced by three methods:
1-
Hydrolysis of vegetable proteins with hydrochloric acid to disrupt peptide bonds (1909–1962)

2-
Direct chemical synthesis with acrylonitrile (1962–1973)

3-bacterial fermentation (the current method)

Wheat gluten was originally used for hydrolysis because it contains more than 30g of glutamate and glutamine in 100g of protein.
As demand for MSG increased, chemical synthesis and fermentation were studied.
The polyacrylic fiber industry began in Japan during the mid-1950s, and acrylonitrile was adopted as a base material to synthesize MSG.

Most global MSG production is currently by bacterial fermentation in a process similar to making vinegar or yogurt.

Sodium is added later, for neutralization.
During fermentation, corynebacteria—cultured with ammonia and carbohydrates from sugar beets, sugar cane, tapioca or molasses—excrete amino acids into a culture broth from which L-glutamate is isolated.

The Kyowa Hakko Kogyo Company developed industrial fermentation to produce L-glutamate.

The conversion yield and production rate (from sugars to glutamate) continues to improve in the industrial production of MSG, keeping up with demand
The product, after filtration, concentration, acidification and crystallization, is glutamate, sodium and water. A white, odorless, crystalline powder, in solution it dissociates into glutamate and sodium ions.
China-based Fufeng Group Limited is the largest producer of glutamic acid in the world, with capacity increasing to 300,000 tons at the end of 2006 from 180,000 tons during 2006, putting them at 25%–30% of the Chinese market.
Meihua is the second-largest Chinese producer.
Together, the top-five producers have roughly 50% share in China.

Chinese demand is roughly 1.1 million tons per year,
while global demand, including China, is 1.7 million tons per year.

MSG uses and benefits

Pure MSG is reported not to have a pleasant taste until it is combined with a savory aroma.
The basic sensory function of MSG is attributed to its ability to enhance savory taste-active compounds when added in the proper concentration.
The optimum concentration varies by food;
In clear soup, the pleasure score rapidly falls with the addition of more than one gram of MSG per 100 ml.
There is also an interaction between MSG and salt (sodium chloride) and other umami substances, such as nucleotides.

MSG can be used to reduce the intake of sodium, which contributes to hypertension, heart disease and stroke.

With appropriate MSG use, salt can be reduced by 30 to 40 percent without a perceived reduction in saltiness.

The sodium content (in mass percent) of MSG—12 percent—is about one-third of that in sodium chloride (39 percent).
Although other salts of glutamate have been used in low-salt soups, they are less palatable than MSG.

MSG is freely soluble in water, but it is not hygroscopic and is insoluble in common organic solvents (such as ether).

It is generally stable under food-processing conditions.
MSG does not break down during cooking and, like other amino acids, will exhibit a Maillard reaction (browning) in the presence of sugars at very high temperatures.

First know how MSG got defamed and people started to think that MSG is bad for health?
Year – 1968
In a letter to New England Journal of Medicine, a Maryland doctor, Robert Ho Man Kwok, said he felt numbness and palpitations after eating at restaurants serving northern Chinese cuisine.
The journal called it "Chinese restaurant syndrome."

An MSG symptom complex was originally called "Chinese restaurant syndrome" when Robert Ho Man Kwok reported symptoms he felt after an American-Chinese meal.
Kwok suggested possible reasons for his symptoms, including alcohol (from cooking with wine), sodium and MSG; however, a number of symptoms have become associated with MSG.

Using Monosodium glutamate MSG or Ajinomoto is it safe for health

Using Monosodium glutamate MSG Ajinomoto is it good or bad for health

MSG has been used for more than 100 years to season food, with a number of studies conducted on its safety.
International and national bodies governing food additives currently consider MSG safe for human consumption as a flavor enhancer.

Researchers have not found any conclusive evidence that links MSG to any of bad symptoms, though it is acknowledged that a small minority of people may have mild, short-term reactions to MSG.

In addition, scientists cannot explain why natural glutamate, which is present in cheeses and hams, has not been associated with any symptoms, when the natural compound shares the same chemical properties as MSG.

United States FDA and MSG

Two earlier studies—the 1987 Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) and the 1995 Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB)—concluded, "there may be a small number of unstable asthmatics who respond to doses of 1.5 – 2.5g of MSG in the absence of food."
The FASEB evaluation concluded, "Sufficient evidence exists to indicate some individuals may experience manifestations of CRS when exposed to a =3g bolus dose of MSG in the absence of food.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has given MSG its generally recognized as safe (GRAS) designation.

A 1995 report from the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) for the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) concluded that MSG is safe when "eaten at customary levels" and, although a subgroup of otherwise-healthy individuals develop an MSG symptom complex when exposed to 3g of MSG in the absence of food, MSG causality has not been established because the symptom reports are anecdotal

According to the report, there is no data to support the role of glutamate in chronic disease.

A controlled, double-blind, multi-location clinical trial failed to demonstrate a relationship between the MSG symptom complex and actual MSG consumption.

No statistical association has been demonstrated, and the few responses were inconsistent.

No symptoms were observed when MSG was administered with food.

The FDA considers labels such as "no MSG" or "no added MSG" misleading if the food has ingredients which are sources of free glutamate, such as hydrolyzed protein.

In 1993, it proposed adding "contains glutamate" to the common names of certain hydrolyzed proteins with substantial amounts of glutamate.

Is MSG safe to eat?

FDA considers the addition of MSG to foods to be “generally recognized as safe” (GRAS). Although many people identify themselves as sensitive to MSG, in studies with such individuals given MSG or a placebo, scientists have not been able to consistently trigger reactions.

Does “glutamate” in a product mean it contains gluten?

No—glutamate or glutamic acid have nothing to do with gluten. A person with Celiac disease may react to the wheat that may be present in soy sauce, but not to the MSG in the product.

What’s the difference between MSG and glutamate in food?

The glutamate in MSG is chemically indistinguishable from glutamate present in food proteins. Our bodies ultimately metabolize both sources of glutamate in the same way. An average adult consumes approximately 13 grams of glutamate each day from the protein in food, while intake of added MSG is estimates at around 0.55 grams per day.

How can I know if there is MSG in my food?

FDA requires that foods containing added MSG list it in the ingredient panel on the packaging as monosodium glutamate. However, MSG occurs naturally in ingredients such as hydrolyzed vegetable protein, autolyzed yeast, hydrolyzed yeast, yeast extract, soy extracts, and protein isolate, as well as in tomatoes and cheeses. While FDA requires that these products be listed on the ingredient panel, the agency does not require the label to also specify that they naturally contain MSG. However, foods with any ingredient that naturally contains MSG cannot claim “No MSG” or “No added MSG” on their packaging. MSG also cannot be listed as “spices and flavoring.”

The FSANZ MSG technical report concludes, "There is no convincing evidence that MSG is a significant factor in causing systemic reactions resulting in severe illness or mortality.

The studies conducted to date on Chinese Restaurant Syndrome (CRS) have largely failed to demonstrate a causal association with MSG.

Symptoms resembling those of CRS may be provoked in a clinical setting in small numbers of individuals by the administration of large doses of MSG without food.
However, such affects are neither persistent nor serious and are likely to be attenuated when MSG is consumed with food.

In terms of more serious adverse effects such as the triggering of bronchospasm in asthmatic individuals, the evidence does not indicate that MSG is a significant trigger factor."

However, the FSANZ MSG report says that although there is no data available on average MSG consumption in Australia and New Zealand

Standard 1.2.4 of the Australia and New Zealand Food Standards Code requires MSG to be labeled in packaged foods.
The label must have the food-additive class name
(e.g. "flavor enhancer"), followed by the name of the additive ("MSG") or its International Numbering System (INS) number, 621.

When very large doses of MSG (>5g MSG in a bolus dose) are ingested, plasma glutamate concentration will significantly increase.
However, the concentration typically returns to normal within two hours.

Last but final words
Just think about MSG and Table Salt, compare them and you will understand the truth

What is MSG?
MSG is: monosodium glutamate, meaning one sodium ion bonded to a glutamate molecule.
Glutamate is a neurotransmitter that our bodies produce every day.
MSG contains less sodium by volume than table salt)
MSG acts on the neurons in our taste buds, not in our brains.

Sodium, as we all know, is a common mineral that our bodies need to function, as well as one that most of us consume too much of, in the form of table salt (sodium chloride).

The ratio of sodium in MSG to sodium in sodium chloride is approximately 1 to 3.

If MSG did have harmful effects,
"Why doesn't everybody in China and Japan have a headache?"

Thus MSG is not deadly MSG is not harmful

Eating or Using MSG does not cause any bad effects

Using Table Salt in large quantity is bad for health
Same way using MSG daily in large quantities is bad for health

Same rule applies to whatever we consume or drink or eat

Hope next time when you will eat the food which contains MSG you will enjoy more knowing that it’s harmless just like Table Salt